As some of you may already know, recently I've been buying and selling through Craigslist. Things have been going well in the past couple of months until just recently my sales began to decline. I would go for weeks without any sales wondering if this whole "business" thing was really going to work out or was I just playing around with my life. I began to panic wondering what the hell is going on. Why can't I make a sales to save my life. In the beginning, I was making $60-150 PER item. I was trying to push the price of the product to the absolute limit.
While reading Sam Walton: Made In America, I came across a line in the book that hit me.
"For my whole career in retail, I have stuck by one guiding principle. It's a simple one, and I
have repeated it over and over and over in this book until I'm sure you're sick to death of it. But
I'm going to say it again anyway: the secret of successful retailing is to give your customers
what they want. And really, if you think about it from your point of view as a customer, you
want everything: a wide assortment of good quality merchandise; the lowest possible prices;
guaranteed satisfaction with what you buy; friendly, knowledgeable service; convenient hours;
free parking; a pleasant shopping experience. You love it when you visit a store that somehow
exceeds your expectations, and you hate it when a store inconveniences you, or gives you a
hard time, or just pretends you're invisible."
I wasn't giving the customers what they want. I was trying to get what I WANT which was large profit margins. This might sound paradoxical, but in order to get, you have to give.
This epiphany hit home for me. I've read a lot of threads on this forum where people preach the exact same concept but it never struck me. It wasn't until I was actually put into the scenario where the advice suddenly came to life. For the newbies sitting on the sidelines, you won't understand this until you are in the game!
Anyone in the retail business should follow these guiding principles as they seem to be the universal laws of successful retailing.
While reading Sam Walton: Made In America, I came across a line in the book that hit me.
"For my whole career in retail, I have stuck by one guiding principle. It's a simple one, and I
have repeated it over and over and over in this book until I'm sure you're sick to death of it. But
I'm going to say it again anyway: the secret of successful retailing is to give your customers
what they want. And really, if you think about it from your point of view as a customer, you
want everything: a wide assortment of good quality merchandise; the lowest possible prices;
guaranteed satisfaction with what you buy; friendly, knowledgeable service; convenient hours;
free parking; a pleasant shopping experience. You love it when you visit a store that somehow
exceeds your expectations, and you hate it when a store inconveniences you, or gives you a
hard time, or just pretends you're invisible."
I wasn't giving the customers what they want. I was trying to get what I WANT which was large profit margins. This might sound paradoxical, but in order to get, you have to give.
This epiphany hit home for me. I've read a lot of threads on this forum where people preach the exact same concept but it never struck me. It wasn't until I was actually put into the scenario where the advice suddenly came to life. For the newbies sitting on the sidelines, you won't understand this until you are in the game!
Anyone in the retail business should follow these guiding principles as they seem to be the universal laws of successful retailing.
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